


Muted Colors

by sapphireswimming



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003)
Genre: Angst, Canon: Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa, Friendship, Gen, Gen Work, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-22
Updated: 2012-09-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:47:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23265694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphireswimming/pseuds/sapphireswimming
Summary: The colors here were dull, on this side of the Gate.
Relationships: Edward Elric & Alternate Gracia Hughes
Kudos: 1





	Muted Colors

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8522124/2/At-the-End-of-All-Things

Ed's shoes clicked softly against the cobblestones of the streets as he walked the now almost familiar pathways back to the rooms he shared with Alfons. He turned the last corner, skirting close to the lamppost in order to avoid the bustle of the streets.

Yet again, he wondered at the lack of color in this world. All grays. Browns. Cloudy skies and muddy streets. Brown tweed and worn pavement. Dark eyes worn with the troubles of the world, stained paper holding archaic words.

Even here, at the flower shop, the colors were muted.

Dusty roses arranged against an even dimmer surrounding.

It hurt his eyes to look at it.

But he stopped here every time. Just to see. To remind himself that colors still existed somewhere, even if only as a pale imitation of what his mind knew.

To see the face of the kindest woman alive on either side of the gate. Although so much changed, some things stayed the same no matter where he was.

No matter how much in a hurry he was, Ed always made time to stop and say hello to Gracia. The light in both worlds that shone so bright his whole being ached from it.

She knew, too.

She could tell, every time he came up to her, no matter how much he wanted to see her, hear her, know that she was real, that his ever present smile hid something deep inside him that he didn't want leaking out.

He had told her once, at the beginning, that a lot of people in the city reminded him of friends back home and had left it at that. Alfons had probably talked to her, clued her into his particular brand of insanity, but she didn't seem to mind.

She asked. She asked him who she reminded him of back home. She believed him on some level. She sheltered him. She stood by him when his strange manners grated on the locals. She was the only one who accepted him as he was, tried to reach out as he stood alone on his island.

"There's that smile again," she would say. "Who is it that I remind you of? Back home?"

It was a frequent question. Always, Ed would answer with a sad smile. And she would ask again later, because she didn't press and it wasn't awkward. It was an understanding between them. She would ask and he wouldn't answer and they would both smile as if they shared a secret that no one else understood.


End file.
